ANS News

Spring marks the passing of the torch for American Nuclear Society leadership. During this election cycle, ANS members voted for the newest vice president/president-elect, treasurer, and six board of director positions (four U.S., one non-U.S., one student). New professional division leadership was also decided on in this election, which opened February 25 and closed April 15. About 21 percent of eligible members of the Society voted—a similar turnout to last year.

The American Nuclear Society’s Risk-informed, Performance-based Principles and Policy Committee (RP3C) held another presentation in its monthly Community of Practice (CoP) series on April 4.

The 50th anniversary of the founding of the Latin American Section of the American Nuclear Society is today: April 14, 2025! LAS/ANS was created with the goal of representing the interests of the nuclear professionals of Latin America.

Jong Kim in 1994 . . .

How did I get interested in nuclear energy? I am a mechanical engineer by education, with a B.S. (Seoul National University), M.S. (University of Missouri), and Ph.D. (Caltech), and I am a nuclear engineer by profession.

After receiving my degree in 1971, I stayed on as a research fellow for two years and then moved to Penn State’s Garfield Thomas Water Tunnel, which at the time was the largest closed-loop tunnel in the world, as a research associate doing naval hydrodynamics research.

That was the year the infamous energy (oil) crisis hit. I thought that nuclear energy would become a critical pillar in energy security and independence. The nuclear profession looked promising. Brookhaven National Laboratory was hiring engineers to develop computer codes, so I decided to join the team and in 1975 became an associate engineer at BNL. This is how my long nuclear journey began.

The American Nuclear Society’s 2025 Annual Conference will take place June 15–18 this year in Chicago at the Downtown Marriott. The conference is an opportunity to take part in one of the largest gatherings of nuclear professionals in the country and engage with leaders from across the nuclear science and technology landscape. In addition to an impressive list of government and industry leaders, ANS is also planning several outstanding hot-topic technical sessions and popular plenary speakers.

ANS Executive Director/CEO Craig Piercy recently spoke on nuclear power’s potential for answering today’s energy demands as part of the Distinguished Lecture Series at the University of Missouri. He also took part in the ribbon cutting for a large addition to the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR).

The Chicago–Great Lakes Local Section of the American Nuclear Society hosted a presentation at the Society’s headquarters in Westmont, Ill., on developments at the molten salt research reactor at Abilene Christian University’s Nuclear Energy Experimental Testing (NEXT) Lab.

A recording of the full presentation is available on the ANS website at ans.org/webinars.

Lisa Marshall
president@ans.org

Global partnerships advance the nuclear enterprise, demonstrating commitment to energy security, supply chain buildout, and economic and human development. Collaborations remain imperative, keeping these things in mind:

Approximately half of the 400-GW reactor fleet will be retiring by 2040.¹

The forecasted need for new nuclear is 300–600 GW by 2050.

There is a need to counter the build-own-operate model.²

Appropriate funding and financing mechanisms are needed.

Host country regulatory oversight is paramount.

By 2050, there will be 4 million nuclear professionals supporting the industry.³

Applications for the Society’s Glenn T. Seaborg Congressional Science and Engineering Fellowship will be closing soon. Congressional Fellows can directly contribute to the federal policymaking process, working in either a U.S. senator’s or representative’s personal office or with a congressional committee. They will be responsible for supplying Congress with their expertise in nuclear science and technology, having a hand in the creation of new laws while gaining a deeper understanding of the legislative process.

The American Nuclear Society’s Nuclear and Emerging Technologies for Space (NETS 2025) conference will take place May 4–8 in Huntsville, Ala. Registration for the meeting is now open, and the Huntsville Marriott at the Space & Rocket Center is also taking room reservations for attendees.

The American Nuclear Society’s Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy Division recently hosted a webinar on updating material control and accounting (MC&A) and security regulations for the evolving field of advanced reactors.

Go deeper: A recording of the full webinar “Updates on Advanced Nuclear Reactor Security and Material Control and Accounting,” which is available only to ANS members, can be viewed here.

The American Nuclear Society’s online programs continue to provide informative content for the wider nuclear community. Two recent webinars held at the end of January focused on intentional outreach activities and K-12 education: “Equitable Outreach: Now Comes the Hard Part” and “Quest for Gold: Exploring Nuclear Transmutation.”

A recent American Nuclear Society webinar tackled misconceptions about nuclear waste. Christopher Perfetti, an associate professor of nuclear engineering at the University of New Mexico, presented “The How, Why, and Where of Nuclear Waste,” the latest online event in ANS’s Educator Training offerings.

ANSI/ANS-8.26-2024, Nuclear Criticality Safety Engineer Training and Qualification Program, has been published and is available in the online ANS store. The standard, developed by the American Nuclear Society, received approval from the American National Standards Institute on November 21, 2024, and was published January 10, 2025.

This standard provides guidance for the content of training programs for nuclear criticality safety (NCS) specialists who are responsible for developing the analyses, controls, and safety documentation required for the safe handling of fissionable materials. This standard presents a matrix of training and qualification (T&Q) criteria based on education and experience combined with individual job functions and provides for qualification of experienced staff by documentation. The standard presents a flexible array of competencies for use by management to develop tailored T&Q programs applicable to site-specific job functions, facilities, and operations. This standard stresses the necessity of integrating standard training subjects with operational experience in order to qualify as an NCS engineer.

The International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025) will be taking place April 27–30 in Denver, Colo.

Registration for the meeting is now open. The host hotel—The Westin Denver Downtown—is also taking room reservations.

The nomination period for the 2025 Nuclear News 40 Under 40 list is now open. The list aims to highlight those who are putting in the work to become leaders in the nuclear community. All nominations must be submitted online by 11:59 p.m. (CST) on April 30, 2025.

The American Nuclear Society’s Chicago–Great Lakes Local Section hosted a presentation on February 27 on developments at the molten salt research reactor at Abilene Christian University’s Nuclear Energy Experimental Testing (NEXT) Lab.

A recording of the presentation is available on the ANS website.

The American Nuclear Society election is now open. Members can vote for the Society’s next vice president/president-elect and treasurer as well as six board members (four U.S. directors, one non-U.S. director, and one student director). Completed ballots must be submitted by 1:00 p.m. (EDT) on Tuesday, April 15, 2025.

The ITER organization (IO) recently published an article asking, “Have you ever wondered what it’s like inside an operating tokamak?” For speculative answers, the international nuclear fusion project turned to electrical engineer Michael Walsh, the new head of ITER’s Fusion Technology—Instrumentation & Control Division and previous head of ITER’s Diagnostics Division.

With the annual ANS election right around the corner, American Nuclear Society members will be going to the polls to vote for a vice president/president-elect, treasurer, and members-at-large for the Board of Directors. In January, Nuclear News published statements from candidates for vice president/president-elect and treasurer. This month, we are featuring statements from each nominee for the Board of Directors.